(Note from the author: These are not my characters, my world, or my situations. They all belong to J. K. Rowling, and are protected by copyrights.)

(Note for readers under 13: Again, this is rated PG-13. You know the drill.)

The flat was as quiet as it always was when he returned to it. He turned on the lights, and set his motorbike keys on the kitchen counter as he made his way into the bedroom. He missed his old flat. He missed the guys's smiling faces.
He needed a cat.
Maybe that would lighten this dead place up a bit.
Or maybe a dog.
No, a cat.
Throwing his shirt off, Sirius fell into bed with an outtake of air. He was tired and hungry, due to the fact that his Frigidaire was fully empty. Uncle Alphard's legacy money was slowly draining, and he was facing being broke if he couldn't find a job quickly.
In the past week, he had tried three different places. A small pub, the Ministry's security branch, and of course, Flourish and Blotts as a bookkeeper.
God, a bookkeeper.
What in God's name was Sirius Black doing applying for a job as a bookkeeper?
He had had such big dreams a few years ago. He was going to be the greatest Auror ever. He was going to rid the world of evil and save innocent lives.
Now he was broke with a flat that didn't even belong to him and a life that he didn't own.
It seemed so much easier when they were in school, laughing in the dormitory about their latest adventure, writing out the Marauder's Map and basking in their own glory.
He could see them now, all sitting around the room on their beds, talking about Peeves and the bubble gum. Remus had been smiling, and he wasn't afraid to show his thoughts. He was laughing wholeheartedly as James described the whole incident to him.
James. He had had parents. He had a family that loved him, and he was going to have the greatest Christmas with them in a few months.
Peter was holding his rat; stroking it and smiling as he listened to James and Sirius tell how they had gotten caught.
Sirius had been so young.
Had he been eleven at one time? It seemed impossible that he had ever had a childhood. It had passed by so quickly.
"Mr. Black!"
A knock at the door.
Sirius opened his eyes, and checked the clock on the wall. He had fallen asleep. It was two in the morning. He yawned, and threw his shirt back on.
Rubbing his eyes, he walked out of the bedroom and to the door. He opened it to a frantic Alice Longbottom, who had lost all of her bubbly personality. Her blonde hair was wild, and she ran in, shutting the door behind her.
"Come," she said, taking a hold of his hand and rushing into the living room, "It's urgent. I've been sent to round everyone up. Not safe to alert you any other way. What can we use as a Portkey?"
"What?" Sirius said sleepily, "What happened?"
"This all right?" she said, holding up an empty tin of tuna. Sirius shrugged, and she tapped it with her wand, muttering an incantation. Sirius touched it, and soon, he was flying through the air again, Alice right beside him.
The colors stopped spinning to unveil a street. There were Ministry officials and other Order members, milling around with their wands out and clipboards and recording devices. Daily Prophet journalists stood at the end of the barricaded road, shouting and waving their quills at the officials, trying to catch a quote.
"Who is the found Death Eater?" a man in a pinstriped suit shouted, "Can we have a name? Is it a male or female?"
"You have ten seconds to vacate the premises!" a Ministry official threatened, waving his wand at the man.
"What does Toddles plan to do with all of these Muggle killings?"
"Five seconds, sir!"
"What happened?" Sirius asked again, staring at the ghost street. Alice didn't answer, but only pointed to the sky. His eyes looked to the stars, and then grew large.
Hundreds of Dark Marks, littering the sky so that the ground beneath them were illuminated in green. So many that the stars and the moon weren't even visible from behind their fleet. The skulls glared down at Sirius, daring him to say something. Daring him to defy them.
"What . . ." and then Sirius saw that the sidewalks weren't as vacated as he believed them to be. Hundreds of bodies were being inspected by the officials, trying to be identified. Each one of them had that shocked, wide-eyed expression on their faces.
"Black! Longbottom!" Crouch's old cracked voice sounded from their right.
Alice led Sirius over to a huddle of Order members, including James. Remus, Peter, and Lily were no where in sight. Sirius took his place next to his friend, and looked to Crouch for an explanation. A burning rage was welling up inside of him. Who would have done this to all of these innocent people?
As if he could read his mind, Crouch placed his hands behind his back, and said in a controlled voice, "A fleet of Death Eaters caused this. The largest Muggle massacre that we have seen yet. Took out the entire street. We believe some of these Muggles may have been wizards. We need to identify the bodies quickly."
"Are there any Death Eaters left on the scene?" Dorcas Meadows asked from behind Diggle.
"Yes," Crouch said, "I need you to interrogate him, Meadows. Find out the names of the ones responsible for this. And as for you two," he pointed at James and Sirius, "You can help her. The rest of you, you need to start securing the premises, and checking for any runaways that may have escaped."
"Where's Frank?" Alice asked, "He was to be here."

"Longbottom's busy at the moment," Crouch snarled, "I am the head of this department, no matter what you lot think. And you are going to take my orders. Now get going."
Sirius and James followed Dorcas away from the group, and down the street. Sirius stared into the faces of the dead victims, all of them crowded by photographers and officials and Healers, looking for survivors. They were having no luck.
"Bloody hell," James whispered, "It's getting worse."
Sirius stopped, and looked in horror at the sidewalk. Dorcas continued walking, as if she hadn't even known they had halted. But James turned, and looked at him inquisitively.
"What is it?" he asked, coming back to his side.
Sirius looked away, swallowing hard. He gave out a weak laugh, and then held his stomach. He looked like he was going to hurl. His eyes became hollow, and he continued walking after Dorcas. James opened his mouth to say something, but decided not to.
Slowly, he turned back to where Sirius was looking. And for a moment, time stopped. His face fell, as he stared down on the face that was still beautifully caked in makeup. Still so alive, and yet so cold and dead.
"Oh my God," James whispered to himself, and he swore the ground fell from underneath him. The orange streetlight mixed with the hazy green of above illuminated her face as it was contorted into an eternal scream.
Elise Warren, maid of honor to Lily, was lying next to a newspaper stand, her wide eyes staring, haunted, at the night sky. Her black hair fell onto the sidewalk, and she looked like she did when he last saw her in Hogsmeade.
She was dead.
"I'm not telling you anything!"
James shot out of his stare, and raised his eyes to look at Dorcas and Sirius, both pointing their wands dangerously at a man cloaked in black and holding a white mask. The Death Eater.
"I WON'T TELL YOU!" he laughed to himself, and Sirius grabbed his collar and yanked him close to his own face.
"YOU SHUT UP!" Sirius shouted, maddened, "YOU PIECE OF GARBAGE! YOU TELL US NOW! WHO DID THIS!"
The man just laughed, and Dorcas raised her wand closer to his neck, "You will give us your name, your colleagues names, and the location of the person who sent you here. Now."
"You fools," the man laughed, "You fools think that you can win! You fools believe that you can defeat my Lord? You are wrong!"
Sirius punched the man in the face, and he went falling to the pavement, holding his face. He was still laughing.
"WHO DID THIS!" Sirius demanded.
"The Dark Lord knows all," the man chortled, "The Dark Lord knows everything. He will succeed. He will kill you all. He will kill every one of you filthy blood traitors!"
Sirius kicked him, and Dorcas pushed Sirius back.
"We do not know enough from him," she scolded, "We need to patiently cooperate with him."
"Listen to your teacher, boy," the man guffawed from the ground, and Sirius kicked him again.
"Sirius," James started, coming from behind him. He placed a hand on his shoulder, and Sirius spun around, his eyes black and darkened. He looked wild, maddened . . .
"Sirius, maybe we should go," he said, trying to pull him away.
"The Dark Lord will blacken the world with his shadow," the Death Eater laughed, pointing his own wand at his chest, "Avada Kedavra."
A flash of green light exploded in front of their eyes, and soon it subsided again. James and Sirius stood paralyzed behind Dorcas as she cursed the dead body of the man. The Death Eater now had joined his victims on the cold sidewalk, his eyes wide. Yet his face was not one of shock or screaming, but of pure joy.
Sirius turned away from the dead body, and stormed away from the scene, back to where the tuna tin was laying on the other side of the street. James, taking one more look at the corpse, followed his friend who looked like he was about to blast everyone out of the street.
"Sirius, you need to get a hold of your temper," he said, and Sirius didn't answer, "There's nothing that you're doing that helping the situation."
"Look around, James," Sirius barked, waving his hand around at the dead bodies, "It isn't a game anymore. It's not time to play hero. This is what they're capable of. They're not human."
"Look, I know Elise . . ."

"Shut up, James," Sirius cut him off and then quickened his step to return to his tuna tin.
"We're not done here," James shouted at his back.
"I am," Sirius said from over his shoulder, and then grabbed the Portkey, and disappeared. James groaned as he saw Crouch running towards the vanished tin and man, and then gave out a curse.
"Potter! What in the bloody hell does Black think he's doing?" Crouch barked, now starting in on him, "He did not have authority to leave this site! He was under strict orders . . ."
"The Death Eater's dead," James said, as Crouch reached him in a stormcloud, "He killed himself before we could get anything out of him. He's over there with Meadows if you want to see."
"I asked you a question, Potter," Crouch snapped, his voice becoming stern, "Where did Black go?"
"Probably back home," James said casually, and then started back for Meadows. He felt a knarly hand grab his arm and yank him back. James glared at Crouch.
"You're not in school anymore, boy," Crouch snarled, "Now you remind your friend of that. This is a war that we are fighting, and we don't have time for him to go off on a rampage every time that he doesn't find something that we do fitting to his schedule. He gets his act together, or he's out. Do I make myself clear?"
James glared at him, and then said, "I believe that Meadows would like to speak with you about the body. It's a male, probably in his thirties or forties. Lower, cracking voice. Seemed to have a birthmark on his left arm."
Crouch gave him one more stare, and then shoved past him to go talk to a few officials that were securing the premises. He didn't even acknowledge Meadows, who was trying to identify the dead man. She didn't seem to be having much luck.
James looked back at the dead bodies surrounding him. There were so many of them. How were they going to cover this one up?
Elise Warren's body was still perched by the newsstand, unmoved by the Healers. But she was dead. He could tell. He had seen the eyes of the dead.
The eyes that were staring forever out in front of them, unmoving, doll-like . . .
He felt his stomach lurch, and he swallowed. He turned from the bodies, and walked back to the remaining group of the Order.
Lily was out with Diggle and Sturgis, trying to calm the witnesses into telling their stories of what happened. Peter was securing the premises. He had been there longer than anyone else had, since he had been at Headquarters still when the call was given. He hadn't seen Remus anywhere. Maybe it was another transformation tonight.
He couldn't see the moon. The Dark Marks were covering the night sky still. An army of skulls and snakes.
Is this what their world would look like in ten years? Is this the world that his children would grow up into?
Not if he could help it.